July 12th:
I know I know the gaps between blogs just keep getting
longer and longer haha. I’m going to start back three weeks ago:
T
he Week of June 24th: 6 of the 7 interns were in
Acuna, leading teams. My team was from
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Monday that we
poured the slab set an Acuna record with a high temperature of 118. I took 3 people to the hospital that day, two
from heat exhaustion and one from heat stroke.
The heat stroke occurred right in the middle of the most crucial point
of the foundation process. I’d never
seen a heat stoke before but it scared me to death. After I got back from the hospital I did what
I could with the slab and all things considered it wasn’t all that bad. Despite a few more trips to the hospital we
completed the house, a double, on Thursday.
After the dedication I went straight to Jess’s site, a single, to help
speed things up. Her site was
ridiculous; you’ll understand when you see the pictures. Anyway I put in a few windows and did the
wiring and we finished all but the final touches that night. Since my team had left I spent the night with
David Quinones. He had been helping at
Jess’s sight as well. His wife made us
some incredible chicken tacos when we got back home at 11 p.m. She is an incredible cook. The next morning David took me to a local
breakfast kitchen where I was given a nice full plate of menudo, the Mexican
version of chitlins. I choked it
down. From there we went to Jess’s
dedication and after headed back home to The Pass.
The week of July 1st: We interns built a single in Juarez this
week. We build for an elderly couple
both of whom had some disabilities. Our
site was super tight. When the house was
finished there were cement walls within 2 feet of each of the 4 walls of the
house. This build was my 10th
house of the summer. We watched El
Paso’s fireworks from a high vantage point in Juarez. I turned 21 in the first church Rolling Hills
ever stayed in, El Salvador Devino, translated Devine Savior.
The week of July 8th: I’ve been in the office this week doing all
sorts of stuff. One day I’m patching
leaks in the office roof, the next day I’m taking passports to team members in
Juarez who forgot them. Pretty much just
doing odd jobs and keeping the radio on incase teams in Juarez need us. My nights are free so that means a lot of
mountain biking and rock climbing. I’ve
gotten so out of shape since I’ve been here..
I hope all is well and can’t wait to see you guys.
Love,
June 15th
Week 3
I had an awesome time this week leading a group from Spring Road Christian Church (West Point, Georgia!!). Andrew and I led most of the build under a staff member’s supervision. The team constructed a beautiful house for Estella, a single mother of 3.
The drive to Acuna is taxing. Each week staff members lose their Sunday’s to tne of the most desolate 8 hour drives in America. (See picture of my extended cab seat in Justin's 1995 F-150 with sub par air conditioning) Justin, the staff member observing us this week, had a fever of 101 due to an abscess he developed on his neck as a result of an auto immune disorder. The thing was the size of 3 golf balls and kept him from being able to turn his head. He was back and forth over the border every day trying to get medical attention, however the doctors would not drain it because he was scheduled to lead a team in Guatemala on Monday. We ended up boiling a razor blade on Wednesday and doing it ourselves. Thankfully he is doing well. He left for Guat this morning. Please remember to pray for him, he has been so good to us.
This week was our first experience building with a team and I could not have asked for a better one. The team consisted of 5 adults and 11 youth, half boys and half girls. I have made some awesome friends and am thankful for every member. They were very patient with us as we worked the kinks out of our team leadership techniques.
The build went according to schedule. We finished Wednesday morning and then went back to the church we were staying in where the team prepared all of their extra food. After the dedication that afternoon we took all the food to the sponsoring pastor’s church and ate and fellowshipped with the neighborhood. It was so refreshing to throw a football for a few hours.
I feel so blessed to have met these awesome people and for the privilege to take part in the miracle that occurred in Estella’s life this week.
Week 4
Just wrapped up our first intern build. We have 7 interns total 4 guys and 3 girls. We built a double in five days working Monday through Friday and spending a total of 60 hours on site. It was one of the most trying experiences of my life. It seemed that from beginning to end just about everything that could possibly go wrong did. The site was the worst that I have seen in 12 builds. It was narrow and short (so short that the dimensions of the house had to be altered on the fly, a fairly complicated process). It was unlevel due to a concrete slab that made leveling almost impossible. It was so small that all materials had to be moved twice a day and a 500 lb water tank was sitting right in the middle of the site. If you are familiar with a double, you know how monstrous of a task this was to complete with 7 people. The last time Rolling Hills built a double we had 22 on our team and it still ran into Thursday. In a build like this you end up doing almost all of what you are best/most efficient at, and a fair amount of everything else. In a now frustrating (but sometime down the road funny) story, I tested the wiring and trouble shot for around an hour before finding out that the power was out in the entire neighborhood.
The complications ended up only costing us time in the long run. The house turned out beautifully. The family had been waiting for 7 years for this house. The colonia that we built in, Juanita Luna, is an awesome place to be right now. I feel it is in the midst of a cultural revival after a few hopeless years. Though we hardly had any time to play, there were kids everywhere, helping clean, holding screws or nails, asking excitedly how to say Spanish words in English. The church we stayed in is also one of my favorites. Pastor Gideon is one of the most exceptional men I have ever met. My Spanish is only progressing slowly, however I can understand everything this man says, its almost eerie. We had several late night talks this week. I fully intend to bring you guys to Juanita Luna on our build and stay with Pastor Gideon.
I know the tone of this update isn’t near as upbeat as my previous ones. But in truth this week was extremely trying both physically and emotionally. Don’t take this as a sign of unhappiness with my situation (there is nowhere else I can imagine myself being) but more complete and total exhaustion.
I leave for Acunia tomorrow. I will meet a team from South Dakota Sunday for my first solo build.
May 14-18
Hey
Guys! It has been a crazy first week. We Crossed over Monday morning at
6:30 A.M. to begin work on our first intern training
house. The 1st house was for a single mother, Patricia, and her two daughters
Crystal and Marlyne. There are 8 interns and three staff members accompanied
us. The process is very slow because we are receiving very detailed
instruction and explanation as we build. When we return to the church we
go back over the day’s events in detail. We finished our training build
on Wednesday morning and headed to house 4000 after lunch. The 4000 build
is an all staff build which is an amazing experience in itself. House
4000 was a double that was completed at 11:00 A.M. on the second day. We
finished the sheetrock in about two hours. The neighborhood families and
pastors had a steady stream of food coming in; my personal favorite was the
tacos del lingua vaca (Cow Tongue). Next week we will be training
on a double Monday through Thursday.
My first solo build is
scheduled for the week of June 4th, terrifying!!!! Prayers
are needed.
May 21-25
It’s been another wild few days down here south of the
border. We completed our
second and final training build earlier this afternoon (Wednesday). We built for a family of 6 this
week. It was another exhausting
few, but very long days. It got up
over 100 on Tuesday and there were winds up to 50 mph both days. These dust storms are something I can’t
even describe and though they made this week’s build much less comfortable, I
feel like it was great preparation for future circumstances. I was carrying a sheet of plywood
perpendicular to the wind and was literally thrown to the ground by one
gust. Like I said, it’s hard to
even put to words.
This family had been waiting for their house for over four
years! The waiting list for a
double is over 4 years and growing..
This work is like nothing I’ve ever done before. It’s so awesome to be able to walk away
from your week having an enduring structure as the fruit of your labor as
opposed to a grade on a sheet of paper.
The house we completed today was our third in just 9 days!!
Anyway, I have officially completed my training, and will be
leading a team with Justin Krikland and my fellow intern Andrew in Acuna this
Monday, and just a few weeks after that, I’ll be flying solo.. I feel very confident about the
building process; the intern manager has done an incredible job preparing
us. I worry most about the
logistics of leading a team, navigation, personality management, tactfulness,
ect..
Prayers are always needed!
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